Hungry for Something Better

Samantha Pitzi

Hungry for Something Better

           When thinking about the diet of an average teenager or kid the first thing that pops into most people’s mind is junk.  They can just eat whatever they want, whenever they want, and none of it ever seems to catch up to them.  Most adult’s excuses for allowing these eating habits is “They’re kids, its fine they’ll burn it off somehow!  They’re still young!”  But this isn’t the case.  Studies show that about 31.8 % of children in America are overweight which is high above average.  Without help from our nation’s school systems, this number will just climb higher and higher.

When not just kids, but any person is hungry, they tend to lose focus quicker.  It is a fact that more nutritious and fresh foods keep you fuller and energized longer than junk.  In turn, serving kids healthier food will help them to focus and pay more attention to their teachers in class rather than the rumbling of their stomachs, which will boost their grades.  Healthy food should also be more accessible to students.  Most times junk food is cheaper priced than a healthier option, so it only makes sense that a student would rather stick to buying a couple cookies rather than an apple. I know this case to be true even in my own school, where chips and cookies cost only 50 cents and fruit cost 75 cents.  Even if someone did want to purchase fruit rather than a cookie, their budget may not allow it.  Having these prices almost forces children not to make the right food choices and points them in the wrong direction.

*As you can see from this chart, as time goes on childhood obesity levels are continuously    growing larger.

 

           A huge factor as to why there is a lack of healthy foods served to children is that it is more expensive.  Although spending five dollars on a package of frozen, microwavable chicken fingers able to feed 15 or 20 kids is more economic than spending that 5 dollars on any kind of fresh food that probably won’t feed as many, it’s not healthy.  Sure, it’s probably easier just to throw that package of chicken fingers in the oven and call it a day, but while tossing them in the oven schools are also tossing away kids’ chances to a healthy future.  If kids are only served junk foods and snacks that will be all they are accustomed to when they get older.  When it finally comes time for them to start shopping for themselves, healthy food will not be a thing they have ever known.

           Although this will greatly affect students in the future, we should also focus on how these choices are affecting students now.  There is a huge number of students who are in the free/reduced lunch program and for many of them, a school lunch could be the only meal they eat all day. The least that could be done to help these kids is to give them one nutritious meal!  Many children that are a part of schools’ free lunch programs are just given two pieces of bread with something stuffed in between them to keep them satisfied throughout the long lasting day.

           The solution to this problem is really quite simple.  Schools should sell healthier foods in order to brighten students’ days and to lead them on clear paths to their futures.  School systems should leave a bigger margin in their budget dedicated to the purchasing of healthy and wholesome meals.  Even just making the prices of both cookies and fruit equal to each other is taking one small step in the right direction.  Obesity among all people is not inevitable, but may begin to be if the issue isn’t tended to soon.

Works Cited:

"Overweight and Obesity in the U.S. « Food Research & Action Center." Food Research Action Center Overweight and Obesity in the US Comments. N.p., n.d. Web. 28 Oct. 2013.

"PaleolithicMD." PaleolithicMD. N.p., n.d. Web. 28 Oct. 2013.